These articles are published in the Slough Town FC programme. The Rebels play in the Southern Premier - just seven leagues below the Premier League. I’ve been supporting Slough since the beginning of time despite now living in Brighton. After nearly 14 nomadic years we finally have a brand spanking new home in Slough.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

THE PANTOMIME SEASON HAS BEGUN

Printed in the Southern League South and West Division match vCirenester Town Saturday 20th September 2008. We won 3-2 in front of263 people and are now 10th in the league.

Manchester City have always been a club that likes a bit of panto, soit’s a match made in heaven to have been sold by ex Thai PrimeMinister Thaksin with a frozen bank account to a bloke who makes RomanAbromivich look like a street beggar.

City's new owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahya is set to useManchester City as a battering ram to improve football in the Gulf andenhance the international reputation of the United Arab Emirates. Hisbig mouth spokesman Dr Al Fahim's said that he hoped "the purchase ofCity will help raise the profile of Abu Dhabi” and just to make surethat we knew they meant business he offered £135m for Ronaldo. Fahimis behind TV show Hydra Executives, loosely modelled on TheApprentice, but with a prize of a million dollars dwarfing theunenviable chance to Alan Sugar being your boss. There are big plansfor it be shown in America and the UK.

The Sheikh was apparently swayed by Man City thanks to an 83-pageblueprint, ‘A New Model for Partnership in Football.’ Behind thedocument is former Nike executive Garry Cook, who was recruited byThaksin earlier in the summer. Cook was appalled at the poor marketingof City and has big plans to change that. How about a partnership withRed Bull to bring out drinks like City Powered and some designerclothing stores. Tapping into the Indian market bringing out a rangeof cars and branded motorcycle helmets. Or the Chinese market withChina Mobile and City-branded phone cards. Cook also said City shouldbe signing superstars for their commercial properties alone,regardless of footballing considerations and criticized manager MarkHughes for being in his comfort zone.

Cook also reckons the Premier League should be reduced to ten eliteclubs with no relegation – even if that would leave the club hesupposedly supports Birmingham City, in the cold. As for working forThaksin, a man who has been described by Human Rights Watch as a"human rights abuser of the worst kind", Cook said " Is he a nice guy?Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Does he have plenty ofmoney to run a football club? Yes. I really care only about thosethree things.’’

Somewhere amongst all this is the game of football. With managersalready walking because of interfering chairman, the Sheikh will nodoubt expect nothing less than success – especially when the bloodymarketing man is already having a pop! Meanwhile Premier League bossRichard Scudamore talks of the leagues 'virtuous circle' describinglast seasons as “arguably, our most compelling competition yet.” Yeahright, none of us saw Man United and Chelsea in the top two andLiverpool and Arsenal occupying the other Champions League spot.

We all love a bit of panto and City might have just stumbled intoAladdin’s cave, so does any of this matter? I reckon it does. We’vecome to the point where you now need to find a billionaire Sheikh toable to muscle into the big four. But it is the Peter Pan economics ofNever land where relegation needs to be abolished so the brand isn’tdamaged. Any ambition of reaching the top is over for the majority offootball clubs. But football thrives on competition, unpredictability,on the underdogs occasionally winning. Instead all that has beenreplaced by clubs becoming brands, where owning one is a vehicle toexert political muscle.

Problem is that if you take away the competition in football just whathave you got left?